Any footage of the "A Little Night Music" OBC?

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 7:58pm

The only footage I've seen is a performance of "Send in the Clowns" by Glynis Johns from a few years after she'd done the show on Broadway. Did they perform at the Tony Awards, or anything?

[AwesomeDanny]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 8:01pm

For some reason, there are no videos of Tony awards performances from the early '70s, which is quite disappointing. I believe that for a few years, the Tonys didn't have musical performances, although I don't know why.

[wiggum2]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 8:08pm

Like awesomedanny said, there doesn't seem to be any video but this thread has lots of pics. You'll like this thread

https://forum.broadwayworld.com/readmessage.php?page=1&thread=1009608&boardname=bway&boardid=1
Updated On: 6/25/11 at 08:08 PM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 8:19pm

Correct, there is no video footage at all from this show. There is video from te outside of the Shubert with the marquee, but that's all.

[sbflyfan]

Posted: 6/25/11 at 8:32pm

Absolute shame... Too bad we didn't have certain "technological items" we do now back then....

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 5:31am

"For some reason, there are no videos of Tony awards performances from the early '70s, which is quite disappointing. I believe that for a few years, the Tonys didn't have musical performances, although I don't know why."

There's never been a season when the Tonys didn't have musical performances (at least not since the Tonys have been nationally televised, starting in 1967). But for several years in the early 1970s, strange choices were made.

In 1971, they chose to celebrate the 25th anniversary by having performances from all the Tony winners for Best Musical (as well as one from Mame, which had lost the Best Musical Tony). That really wasn't a strange choice (even if the several lipsynched numbers came off pretty badly), but the new shows might not have been so happy about not getting to perform something.

In 1972, they did numbers only from Jesus Christ Superstar, Ain't Supposed to Die a Natural Death and No, No, Nanette, inexplicably not including numbers from Follies and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

Then in 1973, the theme was musicals around the world, with numbers from musicals in other countries (and a production of My Fair Lady in Texas). The only nominated musical to have a number performed on the Tonys was Pippin.

Fortunately, the following year they went back to having numbers from the shows nominated for Best Musical, although it's too bad that they didn't throw in one from Candide.

You can look all this up on the Tonys site, under Year by Year. Just click on a year and you'll get the details on what was performed.

As for A Little Night Music, two numbers were performed on TV early in the run. On May 10, 1973, Glynis Johns performed "Send in the Clowns" and D'Jamin Bartlett performed "The Miller's Son" on The Tonight Show.

The only other original cast performance on TV I know of is the one you mention: Glynis Johns singing "Send in the Clowns" (and then doing the final Desiree-Fredrik scene with Len Cariou) on that PBS special sometimes known as The Best of Broadway and sometimes known as That's Singing! That was shown in May 1985 but was filmed a bit earlier. For one thing, Merman (who was on the program) had died in February 1984.

I think that Glynis Johns may have performed "Send in the Clowns" on TV at least one or two other times. I think I once saw another TV video of her singing it. Can't remember what show so perhaps my imagination is at work.

There's a rumor that silent footage of the original production exists in the home of a certain reclusive elderly gentleman in California who is sometimes referred to as Miles Havisham, but I don't know if the rumor is correct.

[CurtainCall]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 9:43am

I have a memory of Glynis Johns appearing in All You Need Is Love : The Story Of Popular Music, a TV series in the 70's, in the episode about the musical, which I think was called Diamonds as Big as the Ritz. My (very shaky) memory was she lip-synched Send in the Clowns, dressed for the part of Desiree. I keep meaning to buy the dvds, but my impression of the whole episode was that it was pretty unsatisfying - even at the age of 13 or 14, so it's not too much of a priority.

I should get it, if only to refresh my memory and see if I've conflated a few memories .

Glynis Johns sang Send in the Clowns a couple of times on the Michael Parkinson shows in the UK - but I still can't confirm if the tapes are still around.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:33am

Yes, the documentary, for all it's worth (narration by Sondheim, etc.) is a poor one-- especially "Clowns."

If Jordan says no footage exists, I'll believe it. Tis a shame though. Updated On: 6/26/11 at 10:33 AM

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 10:42am

I've never heard of Miles having anything from this show but if he does he's kept it more secret than his other footage.

[jv92]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 11:50am

If Miles really cares about the history of the American Theater, then why is he such a scrooge with his footage? Wouldn't he WANT it to get into the right hands for preservation?

[Jordan Catalano]

Posted: 6/26/11 at 11:53am

That's assuming miles isn't an egomaniac who lives to hold his stash over everyone else taunting them with his "I know something you don't know" games.

[nobodyhome]

Posted: 6/28/11 at 7:15pm

"I've never heard of Miles having anything from this show but if he does he's kept it more secret than his other footage."

Well, the rumor I heard may not be true. I'm not sure whether I want to believe that it is true or that it's not (since if it does exist, we may never see it).

[Almira]

Posted: 6/28/11 at 7:48pm

In a closet resides the institute's crown jewels: 16-millimeter film excerpts of 175 Broadway shows from 1931 to 1973. Or, as Kreuger puts it, from "Of Thee I Sing" to "A Little Night Music."

The NIGHT MUSIC reference is on page 2:

One-Man Show
http://articles.latimes.com/2005/feb/13/magazine/tm-kreuger07

A recent radio piece on Kreuger:

Musical Theater Museum Struggles To Preserve Archives

http://www.npr.org/2011/03/02/134207970/Musical-Theater-Museum-Struggles-To-Preserve-Archives



I do remember a local news station here in Los Angeles profiling Kreuger. They showed a tantalizing clip of silent footage of Merman doing ROSE'S TURN. I remember my teenage show-princess jaw dropping.

Updated On: 6/28/11 at 07:48 PM

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/28/11 at 9:36pm

This guy's blog does have some great shots of the Aronson plexiglass trees, etc (you have to go a few pages in) http://****yeahsondheim.tumblr.com/

[PalJoey]

Posted: 6/29/11 at 12:13pm

The link doesn't work.

[theaterkid1015]

Posted: 6/29/11 at 12:18pm

Edit the **** to the actual four letter word beginning with F and it does.

[Unknown User]

Posted: 6/29/11 at 7:49pm

LOL yeah sorry, I forgot that BWW tends to censor certaom words... I find it genuinely amusing tha that's a title of a Sondheim blog, I must admit...

It genuinely is upsetting to me that it appears zero footage of this exists--at least for Follies we have those home movies--and though I haven't had the chance to see it, the Lincoln Center Archives has that copy of the tour of Company which I assume gives at least some good idea of the original production--and of course from Pacific Overtures on it's pretty easy to find original footage (with the exception of the original Assassins, some pretty ba "live recordings" aside). I know it was well explained on here already, but I still can't believe that these Sondheim/Prince shows didn't get proper Tony clips...

[1971FolliesFan]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 1:47pm

There actually is footage (I presume it it from 1973).
Here it is:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMfZNFqMfc4

[Demitri2]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 2:55pm

Does anyone know why Glynis Johns' performance doesn't appear on the Sondheim: A MUSICAL TRIBUTE album with the scrabble letters on it? Her name, I believe, is announced in the BEAUTIFUL GIRLS number, it appears on the cover credits and there's also a picture of her in the booklet but alas she isn't featured on any of the tracks. I'm sure there were time limitations (even though it was on two discs) but one would think her name trumped some of the lesser known artists. Was it simply a case of her being in poor voice that day? Always been a little curious about this and figure here's the place to ask.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 4:29pm

I read once that it was decided not to include the two original cast A LITTLE NIGHT MUSIC performances (barring cut numbers of course) so the scrabble album wouldn't be competition for the OBC. Doesn't make a ton of sense but at the very least it made sense to cut them since the songs would be recorded days later and a great deal of the concert was previously unrecorded material.

It's so sad how much of that evening is unavailable commercially.

[Mr. Nowack]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 4:49pm

^^^^^^
Miles Krueger. His collection is supposedly immense.

[Demitri2]

Posted: 3/26/15 at 6:21pm

Thanks for the answer Mr. Nowack. Much appreciated. As far as Miles' collection, it is immense. He actually drove his entire collection cross country in an attached trailer from NYC to Los Angeles. Unfortunately on the way he had a road mishap and the trailer capsized destroying a good deal of the collection including rare early cylinders and vintage 78rpm horn record players. Yet a great deal of the collection survived which is housed in his apartment in the Fairfax area. One thing I enjoyed seeing were album covers he was privy to of show albums from the sixties that ended up not being recorded at the last moment because of poor reviews (such as DRAT! THE CAT!). Back then it was the custom to record the cast album usually the first Sunday after the opening date so it could be rushed out to record stores A.S.A.P.